Subject:Melt
by Korben
Summary: Derek has a dream about a girl melting, soon he finds out that someone is reaching him in his dreams. And the nightmare starts.


Subject: Melt  
  
Prolouge:The Call for Help  
  
Derek Barnes woke up screaming at the top of his lungs. Sweat covered his body and his breathing was heavy. He sat upright on the couch and wiped the beads of moisture on his face. Images of his dream, or perhaps it was nightmare, still flashed in his mind. Derek closed his eyes and relived the dream, seeing the face and the pictures over and over again. It seemed so real, her plead for help seemed so real. Who was she? He had never seen her before, but why did this woman appear in his dream? She sounded so sad, so scared. Derek wiped more sweat from his forehead and dismissed the dream as another unexplainable event that so oftenly happens in his life. He opened his eyes and saw Chloe, Jason, and Lan looking at him from the door with faces full of confusion and bewilderment.  
  
"How long have you guys been standing there?" asked Derek.  
  
Chloe walked over the couch. "We came in just in time to see you screaming." She sat down next to him on the couch, Lan followed. "Bad dream?."  
  
"More like a nightmare, it was crazy Chloe."  
  
"So, you wanna tell us about it dude?," Jason said while he grabbed a chair and sat in front of the three on the couch.  
  
"You sure you guys want to hear this?". He looked at his friends on at a time, he was all answered with nods. "Alright. If I remember it started with me walking through this misty hallway and I hear this girl calling for help. Sounds like a scene from a horrow movie right?. Anyways, I keep walkin and she keeps on callin for help. All of the sudden all the smoke and mist go away, and I'm at then end of hallway at this door." Derek got up and went to the kitchen and got a glass of water and stood by the kitchen counter. Jason followed and stuck his head in the fridge. "So then I opened the door and I'm in this completely empty room all charred to hell. There's this one single light bulb dangling from the ceiling, it was on and there's this girl sitting on a chair, back towards me-."  
  
"What happens next, does she turn around and do somethin spooky?" Lan interupted while typing away at a computer.  
  
"Yeah somethin like that, but I don't think spooky is the right word, what happened next was amazing, it was...super freaky. So I walk up to her and I look at her face and she has this sad, sad face. So filled with sorrow. So, then I ask her what goin on, why she askin for help, yada yada yada...". Derek stopped as the image of what happened to the girl haunted his mind.  
  
Chloe, who was lounging at the couch, saw Dereks wide-eyes look and walked over to him. "What happens next Derek, tell us". Jason then walks right next to her, while devouring some left over Chinese food, "Yeah, come on D, tell us."  
  
"Alright, alright". Derek swallowed once and continued the telling of his dream. "The girl started to melt, yeah you heard me, melt. Her cheeks started to melt away like burning plastic, then chunks of her body falls off and I see all the gory details, intestines, liver, eveything inside the human anatomy". He took a sip from his glass of water. "The top of her head starts melting, and I see chunks of her brain fall off like melting ice cream".  
  
Lan walks over to the kitchen counter and joined her friends, shocked by Dereks dream, or like what he said, nightmare. "That's horrible Derek. So it ends there, you watching her melt away".  
  
"Nope. Its not over yet, here comes the best part. Almost all of her face is gone now, all her features were so deformed that you would've thought it was some wax dummy being burned. Then I see her lips...or whats left of it move like she was talking. All of the sudden she screams this bone chillin, horrifying, make your knees buckle scream of pain, her voice seems to change as well, sounded kinda like a man and woman together. Then her whole body explodes, and I could the force of it making my body rip apart. And thats when I woke up, screaming".  
  
Jason, wide-eyed, staring at Derek, mouth hanging open, placed the box of chicken lo mein on the counter and, like Derek, got some water. "Well, I think I just lost my appetite for like the week".  
  
"Sorry to hear that bro," said Derek, a smirk on his face.  
  
"Wow". Chloe managed a smile after hearing Derek's tale. "Your dream's kinda-"  
  
"Freaky?" finished Derek.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so".  
  
"What? Ya think there somethin goin on in here?" asked Derek, index finger pointing at his head.  
  
Lan put a hand on Derek's shoudler. "Don't worry about Chloe, its probably another strange thing that happens in Dereks life. You know something to tell the grandchildren, right Derek?".  
  
"Yeah, I'll be like, 'Hey kids, ever hear the story about your old gramps dreaming about a melting woman, whose intestines were hanging out her body?'  
  
They all broke into laugther for a few minutes, then they packed some equipment and got ready for their new freaky case. Some email about flying monkeys in some part of Tallahasse. And for a time they forgot about Derek's bizarre dream, not knowing what really caused it. Though on the night of his dream, Derek thought about it again, trying to figure out why he had that dream, or was it a nightmare. Somehow, he thought the dream was real, some kind of message for help, some psychic chick in trouble he proposed. But he thought better of it and blamed the dream on his own strange freaky mind instead. However, Derek didn't know the what would come in the following weeks for the Freakylinks team.  
  
  
  
Chapter 1:A Familiar Face  
  
"Hey freaks. Let me tell you about a story about a man named Jimmy Robertson, security guard from Miami. Mr. Robertson claims he saw and heard a wailing ghost while on the night shift for his company. He claims he saw it hovering through the corridors screaming and-".  
  
"Derek, how long has it been since you checked your emails?" asked Lan, working at the computer by the window.  
  
Clicking the pause on the voice recorder program, he turned to face Lan."I dunno, I guess a long as you were in Boston".  
  
"Derek! I leave this place for a week, just to meet some friends and your email piles up like those dishes in the sink".  
  
Derek gives her a smile and looks over at the dishes. 'I really should wash does dishes', he thought to himself. Lan really does keep the place up and running. Freakylinks.com would topple over like a house of cards if she left them. Derek decided to read some of his overflowing mail, to ease Lan's anger. But he always hated reading emails, most of the stuff were hoaxes, spam, and the occasional threats. Derek admitted there were some really great stories in the emails, like the one Falcon sent them. Yet, how many Desert Squids could there be . He walked over to Lan and pulled up a chair next to her. "Hey, I'm sorry Lan, I was just busy with the Robertson thing, ya know".  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Just check your mail, you never know, you might find a freakylink for the site."  
  
"HA! I doubt it, there used to be some good stuff. Now, there's nothin more but hundreds of threat letters". Derek clicks away, deleting spam, and opening emails with subjects that catches his eye. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Lan getting up and walking away. "Hey Lan you leavin already?."  
  
"Not yet, I'm just going to clean that massive pile of dirty dishes." Lan turns on the faucet, grabs some plastic gloves and scrubs away. She just hated to see such a thing left alone and not cleaned. The site of the dishes just irritated her. Sometimes she wondered how Derek can live in these conditions. 'He's lucky to have a friend like me' she muses as she washed the dirtly plates. Friends, just friends. Lan shook her head slightly and decided to concentrate on scrubbing. Derek's voice snapped Lan out of her thoughts.  
  
"Lan, you don't have to wash 'em, I'll do it later".  
  
"When you say 'later' Derek, it usually means a few weeks 'later'. I better wash the dishes for you, besides it's stinking up the place".  
  
Smiling, Derek continued checking his mail. What would he do without Lan? 'I wonder if she...nah', like Lan, he figured he should focus on whats he's doing. He scanned the list of emails. Nothing interesting in paticuliar, claims of UFO, Chubacabra, and Bigfoot sightings. Oh, and the notorious threat letters. However, there was one email that caught Dereks eye, one who's subject said, "HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Derek didn't know why he opened that email in paticuliar, perhaps it was the extra exclamation marks, or was it something else? He opened it and read the message:  
  
Mr. Barnes, I need your help. You gotta help my sister Miriam, she's been acting strange, really really strange. She's been talking to herself, but sometimes the voice isn't hers. Sometimes she would leave home and not come back for days. I asked her whats going on, but she doesn't even talk. And sometimes, I think she levitates. You have to help her, I think she's possessed by a ghost or demon, I think it wants to kill her. My address is bellow my message and I have attached a pic of her levitating, for you, please you got to come here and help her.  
  
- Dan Samson  
  
Just then, Chloe and Jason came into Freakylinks H.Q.  
  
"Hello, hello". Chloe walked towards Derek, then stops suddenly. "Ewww, what is that smell?". She covered her nose.  
  
Dereks turns around to see Jason and Chloe at the door. "Hey guys, whassup. Oh, the sme-."  
  
"The smell is from Derek's large mound of dirty dishes," Lan called out from the kitchen sink. "So, whatcha guys doing here?".  
  
Jason walked over to Derek and gave him a pound. "Well, don't got anythin else to do, decided to chill out here for a while." He walked over to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl and poured some cornflakes into it. As Jason poured some milk into the bowl, he saw Lan's scowl. "Hey, I'll wash the bowl myself when I'm finished, ya don't have to give me that look". She gave him a fake smile and continued scrubbing the pot in her hands. Jason gave out a quiet chuckle as he moved to the couch, 'Derek's right, Lan is a neat freak', he thought to himself.  
  
Chloe moved over to Derek and looked at the monitor. "Is that a new freakylink?". She read the content of the e-mail. Sometimes she can hardly believe the things they encounter while working on this site. Even though she had seen many strange, unusual, or perhaps freaky, Chloe still got surprised by some of the website's cases. Perhaps it's because she was a student of psychology, but sometimes, the things they encounter seemed to make rational explanations go into the trash. Yet, sometimes it's her studies that explained some of the freaky events that happen to them. Chloe noticed Derek wasn't listening. "Earth to Derek, is this a new freakylink?". She pointed at the monitor. She moved closer to Derek and lowered her voice. "Stop staring at Lan for now".  
  
Derek watched Lan as she washed his dirty dishes, pots and pans. What would he do without her, he should really talk to her about this thing between them. But he wasn't sure what he was feeling. And once again he forces the issue into the shadowed corner of his mind. At that moment he heard Chloe's question. "Oh, sorry I spaced out for a while". He saw Chloe smiling and eyeing at Lan, then Derek heard Jason chuckling by the couch, chomping on the bowl of cereal. "What?...hey guys, just forget about it, alright".  
  
"Okay, okay. So will you answer my question?" asked Chloe.  
  
"Oh this, I'm not sure. It could be a hoax".  
  
"What's it about D" Jason asked from the couch.  
  
"Some dude named Dan Samson wants me to help him find out what wrong with his sister. He thinks she possessed by a ghost or demon and whatever it is, he claims it's trying to kill her". Derek scanned the email again and remembered something that he forgot when Chloe and Jason came in. "Hey, almost forgot, he attached a pic of his sister, Miriam, levitating". Derek moved the pointer and clicked on the attachment and the picture came onto the monitor. "Hey Jas, come look at this, she's really floatin in the air". Then he focused on the face of Miriam. That face, that look in her eyes, it's so familiar so...he knew who she was. "Oh my God, hey J, Lan get over here, I've seen this girl before".  
  
"What, a long forgotten ex-girlfriend?," Jason said as he walked over to computer, where Derek was sitting.  
  
"What ex-girlfriend?" Lan said rushing over to her friends. She forgot to take off the rubber gloves.  
  
Derek gave a scowl to Jason and turned back to the monitor. "She's not my ex...remember that dream I had a couple of weeks ago. You know, the one that made me waking up sceaming".  
  
"What, the dream you had about the freaky girl who melted in front of your eyes and then exploded?" asked Jason.  
  
"Yeah that's the one".  
  
Chloe raised her left eyebrow. "You mean to tell us that the girl in that picture is the girl you saw in your dream".  
  
"I'm serious that's the girl, I can't forget that sad face".  
  
Lan notcied something about the picture and nudged Derek to get him off the seat. She sat down and began to type away on the keyboard, but she realized she still was still wearing the dripping wet rubber gloves. When she heard Jason talk about Derek and the word girlfriend, Lan automatically flew right over to the computer terminal. Sometimes Lan felt like she cared about Derek too much. She wasn't his girlfriend or anything, yet Lan would always feel compelled to help Derek, or butt into his personal life. She took off the gloves and place it on the table and tapped away. "Okay guys, check this out." She punched in some commands and enhanced the jpeg file, making some faint images clearer. "You see that white shadowy thing around her". She pointed her finger around a white human figure that surrounded the girl's body. "What do you that is?".  
  
"I dunno, but I'm gonna find out. Jason get the cameras, Lan I need you load that email onto a laptop, I'll go start up the car," said Derek as he ran out to the car.  
  
Chloe helped Jason pack the cameras and some other equipment, while Lan loaded the email to a laptop. She thought to herself while she the file was loading. Lan wanted to go with the guys on this case. She didn't know why, but she had to. Remembering what Derek said about his dream, about how he was ripped apart in the end. Lan felt better if she gone this time. And if Derek disagreed, she force him to go. The file finished loading and she turned of the laptop and started towards the door. Just then Derek walked in.  
  
"Come on guys let's g-". Derek saw Lan picking up her bag and moving towards the door. "Lan where you goin? Look I think I should stay her-".  
  
"No Derek, I'm going this time and that's that. I just cleaned up three week worth of dirty dished back there, so shut up, I'm going". Lan stormed off to the Freak car.  
  
"What was that all about?" asked Derek.  
  
Jason walked over to Derek with a leather bag, containing their equipment. "I dunno dude, maybe she mad at a certain someone, who doesn't show his true feelings for her." Jason gave him a smile and moved on to the car.  
  
Derek didn't really know what he felt. Was his feelings for Lan, just some sort of affection for a close friend, or was it because he really... He didn't have time to think about it. A new case just fell into his lap, and this freakylink, linked to his bizarre dream. For whatever reason he had that dream, he didn't care. All he wanted to do now was help out this girl. If what her brother claimed is true, then this Miriam was in big trouble. Yet, he couldn't help his worries about Lan. Derek hated to see Lan get mad at him. Even if it was the slightest anger towards him, Derek would feel real bad, and wished he could right his wrongs. Seeing Lan sad made him sad as well. Seeing her happy, shining face made Derek feel as if the sun shine upon him, showing him a path. 'Sunshine of my darkness indeed'. Perhaps he should have a talk with Lan, and discuss about their situation. But he should wait until after this thing, he had a girl named Miriam to save now. A hand on his shoulder turned his head around.  
  
"Hey Derek, you okay?," asked Chloe.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine".  
  
Chlow gave a small smile. "Come on, let's go, Jason and Lan is waiting. Where are we going anyway?".  
  
"Ah, Dan Samson said they lived in Cocoa, Florida".  
  
"Cocoa? God, sounds kinda like our incident with Falcon".  
  
They both said this in unison, with a southern accent. "Thirty-four fifty, sex road". Derek and Chloe walked to the car, chuckling from their memory and the Freakylinks team began their journey to Cocoa, Florida.  
  
Chapter Two: The Hotel  
  
The Freakylinks team arrived at Dan Samson's house in late afternoon. 


End file.
